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Marco Rubio: President Obama lacks 'courage' on guns

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Thursday that President Barack Obama doesn’t have the “political courage” to “admit” his true feelings about the Second Amendment, the latest in Rubio’s recent criticisms of Obama’s gun proposals.

“Look, I have questions about whether he’s truly committed to the Second Amendment as I understand it and most Americans would understand it. I don’t think he has the political courage to admit that,” Rubio said on Fox News.

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He continued: “But ultimately, I’m not worried that he’s going to repeal the Second Amendment in terms of the law. I don’t think they’re going to do that. I do think, however, that if they don’t fully understand the Second Amendment and how it’s supposed to be applied — they are willing to test it, and they are willing to see how much they can infringe upon it.”

He was speaking in reference to the president’s gun control proposals that he announced Wednesday in response to the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six others were killed.

Obama urged Congress to pass legislation that would require universal background checks, an assault military-style weapons ban and a limit on gun magazines, among other proposals.

Rubio’s take? It won’t work.

“Here’s my point: The impetus for all of this is the shooting in Connecticut, right; that’s what led to this. And yet nothing he’s proposing would have prevented Connecticut,” Rubio said on Fox News. “So it appears to me like this is stuff they’ve always wanted to do and now this has created the political climate to do it. It’s not going to solve the problem.”

On Wednesday, Rubio — often mentioned as a 2016 contender — told Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly on air that Obama should “have the guts to admit” if he doesn’t support the Second Amendment, which gives Americans the right to bear arms.

“If he doesn’t want the Second Amendment to be in the Constitution or if he wants to reform the Second Amendment, then have the guts to admit that,” Rubio said on Fox News.

It was similar to the comments Rubio made on conservative commentator Laura Ingraham’s radio program earlier Wednesday.

“There is a constitutional right to bear arms,” Rubio said on the radio program. “I did not create that, and he cannot erase that. It is in the Constitution. If they want to change the Constitution, if they want to believe the Second Amendment should not be in there or if they believe it should be rewritten in the 21st century, then let them have the guts to stand up and propose that.”